Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday bid her colleagues at KMT headquarters farewell, while vowing to pass on her political beliefs to young people.
Hung, whose resignation takes effect today, faced reporters yesterday before leaving the party’s headquarters in Taipei.
Thanking her colleagues who fought by her side over the past year, Hung said it was a tough but memorable year that made her life fulfilling.
Asked by reporters what her plans were after leaving office, Hung said she intended to take a rest before embarking on a nationwide tour in search of “diamonds and pearls.”
“Talented young people need opportunities to contribute what they have to offer,” she said.
Hung vowed to pass on her beliefs during the journey, saying that the ideologies held by society have been twisted to a “dangerous” and “unfathomable” extent.
Hung has been an outspoken advocate of unification between Taiwan and China.
In response to media queries about the possibility of her running in next year’s local elections or the presidential election in 2020, Hung asked in return: “Do you want me to run?”
The decisions are not to be made by her alone, she added.
Asked how the party’s leadership transition was progressing, Hung said that KMT chairman-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is to take office on Aug. 20, has kept the handover on schedule, and expressed confidence that the transition would be “seamless” and have minimal effect on party operations.
Separately yesterday, Wu said Hung’s leadership should be repaid with high acclaim and gratitude.
He made the remarks during a luncheon with KMT representatives in Taoyuan, where he also praised Hung for holding a “moderately” fair party chairperson election.
“It is praiseworthy that chairwoman Hung managed to keep the KMT on the subsistence level in its most desperate times amid the Democratic Progressive Party’s persecutions and trials over its assets,” he said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods